BY JEB SHARP

THE MESSENGER

 

It has taken three years, but Sen. Bryan Taylor’s (R-Prattville) Small Business Tax Relief Act (SB46) may finally be passed by the Alabama Legislature during this year’s session.

The bill, which entered in 2012 and 2013, would allow a one-time tax break of up to $2,500 in sales tax for roughly 6,000 small businesses in Alabama. Under the proposal, business who pay less than $2,500 in sales tax could defer paying the estimated tax and instead remit the taxes after they are collected from customers, putting what Taylor says is real money into the pockets of business-owners.

“That’s real savings that small business owners can use to, say, purchase new equipment or inventory, upgrade a point-of-sale system, or put toward hiring a new employee or providing health insurance for an existing employee,” Taylor said. “However they use it, it will generate some much needed economic activity. The real key to jumpstarting our economic recovery is providing relief to the private sector, to the job creators.”

The bill, co-sponsored in the House by Rep. Barry Moore (R-Enterprise), was approved Tuesday by a Senate budget committee.

It also received a substantial boost when the Republican majority in the House made it a signature item of their own legislative agenda.

While the Pike County Chamber of Commerce did not formally support or oppose Taylor’s bill, Kathleen Sauer, Chamber president, said any legislation that helps small businesses is a good thing. “Small businesses are the backbone of our communities as a whole,” Sauer said. “We depend on small businesses for those unique services that the community needs. Anything that is beneficial to small businesses is appreciated.”

Though Taylor, who represents Crenshaw County, announced that he would not seek re-election to his position in the Alabama Senate, he did say that the focus of his last year in office would be on economic recovery. “More than anyone else, small business owners really took it on the chin during the economic downturn,” Taylor said. “They’re the backbone of our economy. We need to do everything we can to get government out of the way and help them succeed because they’re the ones providing the jobs.”

Taylor’s bill must still be voted on by both houses in the Legislature before it becomes law.